We were living in Brockville,Ontario, when the January 1998 ice storm hit. That's an experience I don't ever want to repeat, if I can help it. This ice storm caused a massive power blackout in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, plus upstate New York and Maine. The blackout lasted four days to a week in Brockville and elsewhere, but weeks in rural areas. Once the ice storm abated, temperatures plummeted. Thanks to Rick's efforts, our indoor temperature hovered between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius (around 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit).
We were relatively lucky. We were living in an apartment that had a gasoline-powered generator. But because of the danger the fumes posed, we could not run it continuously. Rick would go downstairs, crank it up and run the generator for about 15 minutes, then shut it down for a few hours, then go out and run it again, etc, Because there was no electricity to run the fan, the only heat we got was whatever rose up through the vents. Still, it was better than nothing, and it did make a difference. Plus, we had a camp stove, so we could boil water and cook food. We had plenty of candles, flashlights and (most importantly) spare batteries for the flashlights.
One of the worst aspects was that because our building was on a well, we had no running water. However, we lived next door to a Days Inn, so at least we could walk over there to use their washrooms.
The advantage of a winter power outage is that at least it offers a chance to save perishable food. Rick and I cleared out our refrigerator and freezer, packed everything into coolers, took the cooler with the frozen food outside and kept it there, put the cooler with the refrigerated food at the top of our indoor, but unheated, stairwell leading up to our apartment door. We lost nothing ... which wouldn't happen in a summertime power outage of that magnitude.
Restaurants with natural gas-powered ovens stayed open and cooked and served whatever food they had as quickly as they could, till they ran out. There was a small restaurant located about five or six blocks from us. It was hazardous walking there, because the thick ice was very slippery. But that was one of the most delicious meals (lasagna and a beer, by candlelight) I've ever had! Fortunately we had enough cash on hand to pay for it. No electricity to run the credit/debit machines or cash registers.
I was amazed to see that burning candles raised the temperature of a room! Not by much ... but then, every little bit counted. Mostly we spent a lot of time huddled in blankets, with our two cats snuggled in with us. We read books during the day, played a lot of card games. (I was happy to have that old deck of cards ... which I still have, and used to play Solitaire last night.) When the power came back on (for us) four and a half days later, I remember that it was painful to take a shower. Our skin had been cold for so long that the impact of hot water actually hurt.
A wonderful outcome of that storm was to see the community come together. But it was also rather sad to see everyone return to life as usual (meaning not nearly as connected and reaching out to one another) once the power returned.
Back to the present. We are fortunate, as our power was restored at 11 p.m. last night, after going off at about 4 p.m. But here we are on Boxing Day, and many are still without power. Still, I found it quite peaceful and still to sit in the darkness, with only moonlight streaming in, no thunking sounds of the furnace kicking on. There was almost no light pollution, so as the west winds blew the clouds away, the stars and moon shone brightly. Easy to forget, in our electric world.
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